Mad as Hell

Bailey is mad as hell not only at scumbag New Orleans politicians, but also furious at the increasing numbers of carpetbagging artists who are profiting off the misery of New Orleans.

According to Bailey, "Robert Polidori has now licensed the use of his Katrina imagery (most of the images published in his book were captured inside the homes of Katrina victims WITHOUT their permission, which is called trespassing everywhere in this country, for use in an anti-smoking campaign."

Details here.

Tapedude Update

It's no secret that I think that Mark Jenkins is one of the most original DC-based street artists. Over the years his tape creations have continued to amaze me and thousands of other pedestrians in cities around the world.

And Mark has been busy!

Check out some of his recent outdoor artwork here.

Urban Code Magazine

Issue number two of Urban Code magazine is out and looks great!

The magazine has excellent coverage of the arts, including multiple reviews of DC area gallery shows. You can subscribe for free to the electronic version of Urban Code by sending an email to urbancodemag@gmail.com

Gee's Bend quilts in Baltimore

Deborah McLeod was as impressed by the Quilts of Gee's Bend as I was when I saw the exhibition at the Corcoran in 2004. She reviews the exhibition, currently at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore through Aug. 26.

Read Deborah's review here and just for kicks, see mine from three years ago below:

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The Quilts of Gee’s Bend

There are some museum exhibitions that almost from the first seeds of their conception are destined to great success. And thus I will reveal in the second sentence that I will join the chorus of art critics, writers and curators across America who have lavished nothing but praise on “The Quilts of Gee’s Bend,” currently on exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC until May 17, 2004.

But in addition to the visual power that this exhibition brings to the viewer, I believe that it also teaches several lessons that I think have so far been missed, or perhaps avoided, by all the reviews and articles that I have read about this show. I will thus concentrate on those aspects of this ground-breaking show, but first a little background.

The Quilts of Gee’s Bend display the craft produced by the women (mostly) of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, a very isolated, small African-American community in southwestern Alabama. As one of the quilters put it herself at the press preview, “the road ends in Gee’s Bend and there’s nothing else past us.” Descended from the former slaves of two area plantations, the inhabitants of Gee’s Bend (who call themselves “Benders”) have been historically an agricultural society that was geographically isolated and nearly self-sustaining at a bare survival level through agriculture.

And the women of Gee’s Bend not only plowed and planted and worked in the fields alongside their men, but also reared large families, cooked and kept house and made beautiful quilts; not as art, but out of necessity. These quilts first began to emerge outside Gee’s Bend in the 1960s, but are only now making a true impact across the rarified upper crust of the fine arts world; a world usually too pre-occupied by what’s new, rather than “discovering” the art of common people such as the wondrous ladies of Gee’s Bend.

And because the quilts were created out of necessity, and driven by the availability of material (a torn shirt here, a worn out pant-leg there, etc.) their designs grew out of practicality, rather than a conscious attempt to deliver art. This practicality, plus the physical constraints of making a quilt, then unexpectedly drives the designs of these quilts towards an astounding visual marriage with modernist abstract painting. But not by design, and not by intention – but by a combination of necessity, natural design talent and availability of materials.

Whodda thunk it? Art abstraction without art theory.

Ignore the fact that they are quilts, look at the exhibition and the Gee’s Bend quilts’ designs immediately “pass” for abstract paintings that can be absorbed into the modern abstract genre without a second thought. But unlike the work of abstract painters, schooled or browbeaten into art theory by curators and art critics, the quilts’ original designs come out of a “homegrown” and highly developed collective talent for structure, design and color. So much for “teaching” and force-feeding art theory.

“The quilts,” said Arlonzia Pettway, one of the quilters, “were made to keep us warm.” Art faculties all over the world should make a note of this.

The quilts are also now teaching us powerful lessons, not only about art, but also about American history, art criticism and political correctness.

The New York Times dubbed this show one of the “ten most important shows in the world,” and art critics who one would imagine would rather have their eyes poked out with a blunt butter knife than hang a quilt as “art” in their post-modernist flats have all lined up to applaud this show and connect the bridge between craft and fine art for the quilts of Gee’s Bend.

Is this honest art criticism? Are we applauding the artwork, or are we applauding the quilters?

I submit that they (and I) are doing the former not only because some of us recognize the visual power of the craft, but because we are also completely enthralled by the latter. Once you meet the beautiful, serene, elegant and honest women whose hands created these quilts, you cannot help but realize that there are no losers in their success.

Mary Lee Bendolph is 67 years old, and she responded to one of my questions by saying that when she was eight years old, her mother sold the quilts as cheap as $1.50 and even Mrs. Bendolph has sold them as cheap as $5.00. These days, an Arlonzia Pettway or Mary Lee Bendolph quilt can go for as much as $6,000, as the fame of the quilting community spreads around the world.

“The Good Lord provides,” they both say. You don’t hear that very often in a hoity-toity art gallery or museum.

Gee’s Bend is certainly not the only quilting community in the United States, probably not even the only African-American quilting community in the South, and as beautiful and historically important as the quilts are, they nonetheless fit right into the well-known “secret language” of visual arts among African Americans in the South – Gee’s Bend is a tiny, but important, component of that language.

I don’t think that this is a language that has been clearly understood by mainstream critics and curators so far, as it is a traditional language – far from the giddy, rarified atmosphere of contemporary art. Seldom is anything traditional in the radar of today’s art scene. And thus, this is a traditional visual arts language that has been largely ignored by most high brow art critics and institutions, so preoccupied and focused on what’s new, rather than what’s good.

It is thus ironic, given the Civil Rights history of the quilters, that the quilts of Gee’s Bend suddenly cross the art segregation line between craft and art; in fact a bridge that seldom a “craft” has crossed before, and also present an insurmountable dilemma to art critics and curators worldwide, as this is a show that would be suicide (because of today’s political correctness) to dislike via a bad review.

The quilts force tunnel-visioned art critics and curators to look outside the latest “trendy” videographer or back-lit photographer with mural sized boring photographs. This is an unrecognized accomplishment of this show.

And I also submit that these works should no longer be boxed into a segregated label of “African American art” or “fine crafts” or whatever – they are simply brilliant examples of what common people, without art theory, without labels, without “isms”, without agendas, without grants, without endowments and without college degrees can deliver: sublime fine art.

Great American art.

New Baltimore Gallery

The Baltimore City Paper's Jason Hughes delivers an extensive report on Baltimore's newest art space, the Metro Gallery, directed by Sarah Williams.

Read the article here.

Reminds me of the fact that in the last year or so about half a dozen new art spaces have opened in the Greater DC area. Maybe the Washington City Paper needs to write an article focusing some much needed attention on these new venues?

New Arts Blog

Central Intelligence Art is a new blog by talented DC area artist Rex Weil, who also teaches at Maryland and is the DC area editor for ArtNews.

Visit him often here.

Opportunity for Pennsylvania Artists

Deadline: August 1, 2007

The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts invites applications for the 2008 Individual Artists Fellowships. They are now accepting online applications to the 2008 Individual Artists Fellowship program, which offers $5,000 to $10,000 fellowships.

Discipline categories for this year's fellowship program are as follows: Dance -- choreography; Folk and traditional arts -- performing traditions and apprenticeships; Literature -- poetry; Media arts -- narrative and documentary; Music -- classical composition; Theater -- scriptworks; and Visual arts -- drawing, artists books, printmaking or new technologies or painting.

Artists applying for a PCA Fellowship must be permanent residents of Pennsylvania who have established residency for at least two years prior to the application deadline. Students in high school, undergraduate, or graduate programs at the time of application are ineligible to apply for a fellowship.

Application guidelines are available on the PCA Web site.

Jericho

I am a big fan of the CBS show "Jericho," which is a terrific and harshly realistic view of a small Kansas town in a post-nuclear America. It is a superbly crafted drama set in a very scary world where terrorists (or is it them?) have wiped out several key American cities with nukes. Because of its location, Jericho survives the fallout and must now face a post-nuclear America.

This SF show almost bit the dust due to sickly ratings in the right demographics, but when CBS announced that it was cancelling the series, fans began mailing CBS bags of peanuts as a protest.

Peanuts because in the last episode the lead character, when asked to surrender at the end of an assault by the neighboring town, echoes Gen. McAuliffe's famous WWII reply when also asked to surrender by the Germans when McAuliffe was surrounded during the siege of Bastogne: "Nuts!"

20 tons of peanuts later, CBS has the show back on the slate for six new episodes.

CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler called the online outcry a "probably unprecedented display of passion in support of a prime time television series" and said CBS has ordered seven more episodes of the show for mid-season.

Gets me to thinking about what we could mail the WaPo and other moribund paper media to get them to pay attention to the visual arts?

A View From Maryland

With an Opening Reception next Tuesday, July 10, 2007 from 5 PM - 7:30 PM, the University of Maryland University College presents "Landscape and Nature: A View From Maryland," curated by Sigrid Trumpy.

This exhibit is the result of a partnership among the state of Maryland, the Maryland Sister States Program, and the Japanese Prefecture of Kanagawa. Participating artists include Mary Arthur, Denee Barr, Karen Birch, Larry Chappelear, Donald Cook, Richard Dana, Kevin D. Augustine, David Driskell, Aline Feldman, Steven Fiscus, Peggy Fox, Kathryn Freeman, Inga Frick, Stephanie Garmey, Ken Giardini, Joshua Greer, Ronnie Haber, Steven Hay, Matt Hyleck, Edda Jakab, Susan Johnson, Chevelle Makeba Moore Jones, Jeanne Keck, Patrice Kehoe, Jinshul Kim, Philip Koch, Perna Krick, Dan Kuhne, Eugene Leake, Ralph McGuire, Raoul Middleman, Tom Nakashima, Susan Due Pearcy, Jan Razauskas, Beverly Ress, Charles Ritchie, Michael Rogovsky, Nancy Sheinman, Joe Shepherd, Tony Shore, Elzbieta Sikorksa, Laura Vernon Russell, William Willis, Edward Winter, and Sharon Wolpoff.

Print Saturday

Tomorrow, DC's Jane Haslem Gallery will host "Print Saturday," one of two events highlighting artists from Washington Printmakers Gallery. Jenny Freestone, Betty MacDonald, Max Karl Winkler, Martha Oatway, Joyce Ellen Weinstein, Lila Oliver Asher, Terry Svat, and Yolanda Frederikse will present portfolios of their prints and be on hand to talk about their work from 12 to 5 pm. This is a unique opportunity to meet the artists and see their latest prints!

Part of the proceeds from sales will benefit Union Printmakers Atelier, a printmaking facility in downtown DC providing studio access to artists who work in lithography, intaglio, relief, letterpress and book arts.

For more information call Jane Haslem Gallery at 202-232-4644 or Washington Printmakers at 202-332-7757.

Kahlo or Not?

A Happy 100th birthday to Frida Kahlo!

"Frida Kahlo 1907-2007: National Homage" - a massive Kahlo exhibition at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, "fills all eight galleries of the ornate beaux-arts edifice that is the country's most prestigious cultural showcase. It encompasses nearly one-third of Kahlo's total artistic output, including 65 oils (divided into self-portraits, portraits and still lifes), 45 drawings, 11 watercolors and five prints" and it is part of a month-long series of events covering everything about Frida and marking the 100th anniversary of her birth on July 6, 1907.

The exhibition opened two weeks ago and it is already attracting not only huge crowds but also causing a lot of controversy, much like Kahlo did during her life.

Officials estimate that 300,000 people will view the show here through Aug. 19. Much of its contents then will be regrouped into smaller exhibitions that will open over subsequent months at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Reed Johnson, writing for the LA Times, discusses the controversy over two Kahlo pieces in the exhibition.

On Monday, the Mexico City daily newspaper Reforma published a story in which Raquel Tibol, a respected art critic and author of a new biographical study of Kahlo’s husband, Diego Rivera, raised questions about the authenticity of two of the works in the Kahlo restrospective at the Palace of Bellas Artes.

One of those works, a portrait of one of Kahlo’s first lovers, Alejandro Gómez Arias, which she painted in 1928, reportedly was discovered in a piece of furniture by his heirs after his death in 1990. Gómez Arias was riding with Kahlo during the fateful bus accident that fractured her spine.

The painting was included in the large Kahlo show hosted by the Tate Modern in London in 2005. Tibol has challenged the provenance of that work as well as an undated drawing, “Portrait of Isolda Pinedo Kahlo.”

It is interesting to note that there are at least half a dozen "missing" Kahlos which are believed to be somewhere in the United States, but no one knows where or who has them.

Print Saturday

Tomorrow, DC's Jane Haslem Gallery will host "Print Saturday," one of two events highlighting artists from Washington Printmakers Gallery. Jenny Freestone, Betty MacDonald, Max Karl Winkler, Martha Oatway, Joyce Ellen Weinstein, Lila Oliver Asher, Terry Svat, and Yolanda Frederikse will present portfolios of their prints and be on hand to talk about their work from 12 to 5 pm. This is a unique opportunity to meet the artists and see their latest prints!

Part of the proceeds from sales will benefit Union Printmakers Atelier, a superb printmaking facility in downtown DC providing studio access to artists who work in lithography, intaglio, relief, letterpress and book arts; and one of those places that is a key part of the city's art scene and cultural tapestry.

For more information call Jane Haslem Gallery at 202-232-4644 or Washington Printmakers at 202-332-7757 or Scip Barnhart at 202 277 1946.

No! to Lower Merion Township's last ditch effort

Lower Merion Township's last ditch effort to keep the Barnes Foundation where it is has been rejected.

Montgomery County officials, who made the offer, say they will take the Barnes to court in a final effort to prevent the move.

The Barnes rejection "shows that they're hellbent on moving and they are much more interested in ingratiating themselves with the power players and the arbiters of culture in Philadelphia than in following the dictates of the trust," said Mark D. Schwartz, a lawyer for the Montgomery County commissioners.

Read the Forbes story here.

Happy 4th!

Super proud to be an American!

Baltimore Arts Blog

Bmore Art is a new-to-me art blog all about Baltimore. It is a collective group of artist-contributors, including Jarrett Min Davis, Asper Winktop, Don Cook, Rob Sparrow Jones, Cara Ober, and others. It is loosely organized by one of my recently-discovered fave artists, Cara Ober.

Visit them often here.

Opportunity for Artists

Deadline: August 17, 2007

The Curfman Gallery at Colorado State University announces a national call to artists for the 2009-2010 exhibition season. No entry fee. All work/exhibition proposals will be considered. Please send a SASE along with slides and or CD of high res. images of your work, as well as an artist CV and formal exhibition proposal to:

Curfman Gallery
8033 Campus Delivery
Fort Collins, CO 80523-8033.

For more information, visit this website or contact Stanley Scott at lscarts2@lamar.colostate.edu or 970-491-2810.

Grants for Young DC artists

Deadline: September 19, 2007, 7pm.

The DC Arts Commission recognizes up and coming DC artists with the Young Artist Grant Program. This initiative, which offers grants of up to $3,500 to artists between the ages of 18 and 30, is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts' Challenge America program.

Grants support individual artists in two funding categories: Young Emerging Artist Grant Program-artists may apply for up to $2,500 of support for innovative art projects. Young Artist Community Service Program-artists may apply for up to $3,500 of support for projects that strengthen communities as well as provide positive alternatives for youth. For more information please visit this website.

Affordable Housing for DC area Artists

Deadline: August 9, 2007, 5pm.

The Cultural Development Corporation (CuDC) has partnered with Manna, Inc., to develop approximately 40 affordable work/live housing units for artists and their families at 2414 Douglas Street, NE, in the Woodridge area of Washington, DC.

The intent of this project is to create work/live artist housing units designed primarily as functional studio space with basic living space as an ancillary use.

Construction is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2008, with occupancy expected in 2009. Applications are now available.

CuDC will start accepting applications on Monday, June 4, 2007 at 9 a.m. All applications are due to CuDC no later than 5 p.m., Thursday, August 9, 2007. For more information on the application visit this website.

The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund

Deadline: September 15, 2007

The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund welcomes applications from visual artists aged 40 years or older, who live within 150 miles of Washington, D.C. and can demonstrate that they have the potential to benefit as artists from a grant.

The Franz and Virginia Bader Fund does not, however, accept applications from filmmakers, video artists, and performance artists. In 2006 the Franz and Virginia Bader Fund awarded three grants totalling $60,000.

The deadline for applications is September 15, 2007. Application forms may be downloaded from the fund's web site: www.baderfund.org or may be requested by sending an email to grants@baderfund.org or by sending a request to:

Bader Fund
5505 Connecticut Avenue, NW #268
Washington, D.C. 20015

Opportunity for artists

Deadline: ASAP!

Light Street Gallery in Baltimore has two upcoming group shows scheduled and they are inviting any artists interested in submitting artwork for these shows to first email images and/or ideas to gallery director Linda Krensky.

The first opportunity is an Open Call for Artwork for their "Box Show." All artists are welcome to submit any size Two or Three Dimensional creative artwork that includes a box of some kind. That exhibit will take place from August 18th thru October 6th, 2007.

The second opportunity is for their small works show. Two Dimensional Work: Maximum image size to be 144 square inches, (i.e. 12” x 12”) or less, xxcluding matting and framing. Three Dimensional Work: Maximum sculpture size to be 1728 Cubic Inches, (i.e. 12” x 12” x 12”), excluding Display or Pedestal. That exhibition is from From November 17th thru January 12th, 2008.

Questions? Call Ms. Krensky at the gallery, 410-234-0047 or email her at info@lightstreetgallery.com.